Macau Wedding Ceremonies

Macau Wedding Ceremonies

With the enactment of Law 11/2024, which amended Decree-Law 59/99/M and came into force on July 1st, 2024, a very significant step was given to facilitate and expedite procedures for weddings taking place in Macau when at least one of the betrotheds is a Macau resident.

As a matter of fact, with the amendments introduced by the said law, it is now possible to choose the date, time and venue for the ceremony without the previous constraints. It is namely possible to proceed with a wedding ceremony at any date and time (it is not limited to office hours, as before) and it can be done at a place of the betrothed’s choice, for instance, a hotel or restaurant, provided that it is an open area with the required dignity.

It should be noted that the law stipulates certain conditions for the wedding ceremony location, as it must have public access and cannot happen in vessels or airplanes, as well as casinos or gambling premises with public access restrictions. The location has to be expressly identified in the declaration for marriage to be signed by the betrothed.

The betrothed are no longer limited to the dull premises of the Civil Registry because they can engage private notaries to officiate the ceremony, giving plenty of flexibility to their wedding plans.

Moreover, as private notaries are also lawyers, those engaged to be married can now obtain legal advice on the implications of the marriage, being of great importance decisions on the regimes of ownership of matrimonial assets, which have specific features in the local law that can be clarified by the legal practitioners.

Private notaries also organize the marriage file and assist in all related procedures, namely its registration.

This is indeed a quite relevant change in the prior legal arrangements for this matter, and it is likely to greatly improve the way wedding ceremonies take place in Macau.